


Camelot's got a new knight

by bunnysworld



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-13
Updated: 2014-01-13
Packaged: 2018-01-08 14:07:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1133546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunnysworld/pseuds/bunnysworld
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reluctantly, Merlin goes to the medieval fair with his friends who love to pretend they're the knights of the round table. But then a tall bloke stumbles into their mids and Merlin isn't averse to get to know him better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Camelot's got a new knight

**Author's Note:**

> I just found this on my HD and I don't think this was posted anywhere before, even though it sits there for quite a while. Time to get out into the internet world, little story. 
> 
> It's betaed, but I have no clue by whom, sorry. Judging by the time it was written, it could have been tam. Anyway, thanks to whomever did it.

„Do I have to?“ Merlin blinked tiredly. 

“Yup.” Gwen shoved some clothes in his arms. “Go get dressed, we’ll have to be there in an hour to set up camp.”

Groaning, Merlin made his way to his bedroom. Somehow he’d let himself get dragged into Gwen’s role-play group and they expected him to show up to camp with them at this medieval fair. It had started out very innocently with Gwen’s fascination for those events and then she had met the others and they just dragged him along. The things he did for his best friend. 

She was good at making those medieval-ish clothes and had insisted on making him something too. “I can’t be seen with you wearing jeans and a tee, Merlin, you _need_ the right clothes!” So he’d let Gwen make him a blue linen shirt with a matching red scarf. He’d gotten himself a belt to go with it and had insisted on wearing jeans and runners with that in the beginning.

And then he’d met those other folks and felt a bit out of place in between all those blokes in chainmail and the girls in wonderful dresses. They’d tried to convince him that he needed his own chainmail, but no way was he going to wear a heavy thing like that all weekend. And to be honest, the mere thought of knitting one himself made his fingers knot themselves. He’d agreed to let Gwen make him a pair of brown breeches and got boots he thought fitted, even though they were not really authentic to the time. A while later, Gwen also made him a leather jacket and his outfit was complete. Ever since then, she’d dragged him to every meeting and every fair. 

Merlin scratched his chest. No matter how many t-shirts he wore underneath, the linen still itched. He stuffed the rest of the things into his leather backpack and grinned as he remembered how the group had tried to make him the court physician, in their little imaginary re-enactment of Camelot, when they found out he was a paramedic. They dropped the thought when he’d tried on one of those long robes for everyone’s amusement. He just looked ridiculous in it, so he decided to stick to shirt and breeches. 

Gwen was already in her royal dress, since her boyfriend, who – being named Arthur – was predestined to be the King of Camelot in their little group, would pick them up soon. “Just that little backpack, Merlin?” 

“I told you I wouldn’t stay the nights. I’ll help set up camp and I’ll be back early in the morning. I prefer to sleep in my own bed, you know.” 

“Spoilsport.” She nudged his arm and muttered something about him having more fun in life if he actually considered spending some time in someone else’s bed, which he choose to ignore. 

“Will the others be there already?” Merlin pulled his boots on and was happy that Arthur would be here any minute. In any other environment but the event itself, he felt stupid with these clothes. 

“Yeah, they probably already started setting the tents up.” Gwen took her large basket and then looked at Merlin. “Actually, you’re the servant, you should carry this.” She winked at him. 

“Actually, I’m the magical court physician apprentice...or whatever you guys thought up for the weekend. I’m not a lowly servant.” He grinned.

“There is nothing wrong with being a servant. I was a servant before Arthur and I got together.”

Merlin sighed dramatically. “I know, I was there, remember?” He took the basket from her anyway. 

They hauled their stuff into Arthur’s small blue car and arrived at the site a bit later. 

Morgana, Leon, Gwaine and Lancelot – who answered to Maggie, Liam, George and Leonard in real life – were already there and the tents were almost set up. 

While Gwen and Arthur started to set their tent up, Merlin greeted the others. 

“Where’s your tent, Merlin?” Leon smiled shyly. “I could help you with it?” 

Merlin went over and kissed him on the cheek. They had tried to be a couple about a year back, but they worked out better as friends, which didn’t mean that hello-kisses and occasional cuddling by the fireplace were forbidden. And sometimes, in desperate times of need, they added some benefits to the friendship. “Don’t have it along. I’ll go home tonight.”

Leon’s face fell. “Too bad.” 

“I’ll be back in the morning, don’t worry.”

“You can still crash with me, Merlin,” Gwaine came over, wielding a sword. “Look, it’s all new!”

Merlin inspected the sword, weighed it in his hand and made some approving noises. He had no clue about swords or what made a good sword or how to tell the ones that were made to show off from the ones you could do actual show fights with. “Nice.” He gave it back. “Will you go find yourself someone to try the sword?”

Gwaine flicked his long hair back and nodded. “Yeah, I hope so.”

They set up the table and the chairs while Lancelot was busy with the campfire. 

Freya, who was actually Fiona, the only female knight of the roundtable – she insisted on ‘knightess’, came over and brought more food. “Hey everyone.” She started telling them all about her day and some horrible clients but nobody really listened and she didn’t expect them to. She just had to get it out of her system before she could put on her chainmail and fully concentrate on being a knight-ess. 

Merlin poured himself another drink and leaned back. Slowly he fell into his role, too. Each time they went to an event like this, he pretended to be really grumpy and that he didn’t want to go at all. But once he was there, he had as much fun as everybody else. He was looking forward to seeing the market stands the next morning since he was still looking for a birthday gift for Gwen. 

Morgana slid into the chair next to his. “How’s your love life these days, Merlin?”

She was never one to start a conversation with small-talk and Merlin chuckled. “Non-existent, as usual.”

“We have to do something about that,” she nodded once, “it’s a shame that a nice bloke like you roams this earth all alone.”

“You know,” Merlin sighed, “between my work schedule and this group here, there’s not much time and space for anything else.” He made it sound like it was the most horrible thing, but actually, he didn’t mind too much. He had a job and a group of friends that made him happy and if the need got too much, Liam was only a phone call away.

“This weekend, Merlin, we’ll find you someone this weekend,” Morgana patted his hand and before he could protest, she got up and went to flirt with Gwaine. 

Now Merlin sighed like he meant it. Morgana on a mission, it would end like all the other weekends she tried to set him up with someone – as a disaster. It was wiser to stay away from her as far as possible for the next two days. 

They had a great meal and some more drinks and when everyone started to get tired, Merlin said his good-byes and went home. 

 

The next morning, he was back as promised and even though they scolded him for bringing fresh rolls and pastries, they descended on them like a pack of wolves. 

After breakfast, Morgana linked arms with Merlin and smiled sweetly. “So, what are we going to find today?”

“Gwen’s birthday gift, I hope.” Merlin bit back a groan, so much for his plan to evade her. 

“Let’s go then.”

There was no way to ditch her now and wander along the merchants booths on his own. First, they looked at robes and dresses, but Merlin found it ridiculous to buy clothing for someone who was that good at sewing. Morgana dragged him to the tiaras and they both decided that Gwen was better with her queenly crown. 

They bought some oriental candy and munched on sugared chickpeas and almonds as they made their way over the market where the first visitors flocked in. Morgana didn’t grow tired of pointing out blokes at him. Some Merlin found attractive, but usually their taste in men was quite different which lead to discussions and giggling, and they earned themselves quite some looks from people nearby.

“Oh look, jewellery!” Morgana pulled him over to the stand. 

Merlin was not really interested in that. He wasn’t big on wearing jewellery and he would not give his best friend a ring for her birthday. So he leaned against the side of the booth when he an amber necklace caught his eye. He took it from the display and turned it in his hand. Gwen would love this!

“If you ask me, it’s not really your style.”

Merlin looked up and saw...a mountain of a man. He wasn’t of the short kind himself but he actually had to look up at him. The man, all short dark blond hair and kind eyes, grinned at him. 

“Nope, but Gwen’s.” Merlin grinned back. 

“Oh. She’s a lucky girl to have a boyfriend who knows exactly what suits her.” 

Merlin chuckled. “She’s my best friend, but girlfriend? No.” He couldn’t help but stare at the bloke’s upper arms. Oddly, he was wearing kind of a chainmail vest without sleeves. And those arms were quite the sight to see. Merlin swallowed. “I guess I should pay for that before I’ll end up in the jail cell over there for theft.”

“You do that.” The giant gave him another wide smile. “See you around.” 

When Merlin was done handing his gold coins over and turned back again, the bloke was gone, too bad.

“You’re a hopeless case when it comes to flirting, Merlin.”

He jumped when Morgana nudged him in the back. “I wasn’t flirting!”

She sighed. “Yeah, that’s the problem. You wouldn’t even notice if someone cute bit you on the arse.”

“Oh, that I’d notice!” He grinned.

“No, seriously, Merlin, that ‘oh, it’s for your girlfriend’ remark...how much more obvious did he have to be?” 

“He was not flirting at all. He was just...” Well, what was the bloke? Aside from a mountain of muscle and out-of-this-world-gorgeous?

“Flirting.” Morgana pulled him along. “Let’s go see what they have over there. With a bit of luck, we’ll run into the giant again at the tournament this afternoon.” 

Merlin rolled his eyes but wandered along. Yeah, maybe he’d see him again. 

 

When it got really warm around noon, they went back to the camp to chill with the others and munch on the food they bought at the stands. 

Gwaine checked his texts on his mobile which immediately earned him dark looks from Arthur. “Communications magic!” Gwaine grinned. “Ask Merlin, he knows all about magic.”

“He probably only checked the time, oh mighty King, so he’ll be on time for the sword fighting.” Merlin had to bite back a chuckle. He liked Arthur, he was good for Gwen, but as soon as he put that golden crown on, Merlin immediately had a craving for burgers. It just looked so much like the paper ones you got at that fast food restaurant. 

When Gwaine got up and took his sword, Morgana pulled Merlin out of his seat in the shade. “Come on, we wanted to watch.” 

Merlin sighed. It was peaceful and quiet here, he could take a nice nap, but no, Morgana was on a mission to find him a man. And by the way she looked, she meant business and there was no way of escaping. And if he were honest, he enjoyed looking at sweaty blokes trying to out-bloke each other with swords and whatnots. So he got up and trailed after Gwaine and Morgana.

They stood at the edge of the lawn where the sword fighting was taking place. Gwaine signed up for it and waited for his turn. When he was called to the middle of the lawn, Merlin smiled widely and then rubbed his arm when Morgana nudged him. “Look, it’s your friend from the jewellery booth.”

“He’s not my friend. And Gwaine won’t stand a chance against this bloke. He’s like...twice as tall as Gwaine!”

They watched as the men slowly circled each other, waiting for the other to start the fight. And when they finally did, it didn’t look like a show fight at all. They both moved with practised grace, trying to land strikes and to get the other off balance. 

The crowd around them cheered and whistled, spurring both fighters on. 

And then it happened. Later, none of them could tell if Gwaine had miscalculated a strike or if the other man just moved too slow, but Gwaine’s sword caught the other on the back of his hand, the not really sharp corner being enough to break the skin open due to the force of the blow. 

Gwaine went pale and the other man dropped his sword and held his hand, trying to inspect it. The paramedic in Merlin took over and he ran onto the field. “Come on, let’s get you out of here, no need for spectators.” He already grabbed the huge hand to inspect the damage as they moved off the field. 

Morgana glared everyone out of the way who made an attempt to block it while Gwaine trailed after them, the other’s sword and his own over his shoulder. 

“I have my kit in my backpack at our camp. Come on, let me take a closer look when we’re there.” Merlin held the other’s wrist and had one hand on his massive back to guide him through the crowd. 

“You’re a doctor?” 

“Paramedic.” They reached their camp and Merlin pushed the other man into a chair in the shade. “Get him some water, Freya, would you? Get me my backpack, Arthur, it’s right next to you.” They all obeyed, even though they looked surprised. Usually he was the one to back down, but he was in full professional mode now and giving orders to onlookers was part of his job. Keeping them busy and making them feel important, that kept them out of his hair. 

He cleaned the wound with efficient moves and inspected it. The skin on the knuckles was scraped and broken but the bleeding already stopped. It would leave a nasty scab but that wasn’t the biggest problem. The hand was already swollen. “Can you move your fingers? Do you have the feeling something is really wrong in there?”

The man tried to flex his fingers and bit back a grunt. “I doubt that anything’s broken, it’s probably just the swell. I’ll put some ice on it and it’ll be fine in the morning.”

“We should get you to a doctor. Just to make sure our diagnosis is right.” Merlin tried a careful smile. 

The bloke shook his head. “Nah, it’s not that bad.”

Leon came back with a bowl of ice. “Here you go. The folks from the mead stand were kind enough.”

“You flirted with the redhead long enough to get some ice!” Lancelot patted his back. “I hope he earned himself a smooch for that at least?” He loved watching Leon blush. 

Merlin was done putting a bandage around the knuckles and took the scarf from his neck to wrap some of the ice cubes up in it and hold it to the man’s hand. 

“Thanks,” giant bloke smiled at Leon. “Thank you all for saving a lonely knight. I don’t know how to make it up to you.”

“You’re here alone?” Arthur shoved the crown on his head a bit back, which gave him a mischievous – some called it ridiculous - look. 

“Yeah, I moved here a while back and didn’t have time to find myself a group yet.”

Arthur almost beamed. “Welcome to Camelot,....?” 

“Percy. My name’s Percy.” 

Gwen almost squealed in delight. “Arthur, with that name, he just has to!”

“Welcome to Camelot, Percival.”

They all introduced themselves and Gwaine poured Percy...Percival a mug of wine. “Here you go, mate. I’m really sorry about that. I don’t know what happened.”

“Don’t worry, freak accidents happen. I’ll live.” He took a large gulp of his wine. “And you are?” He turned to Merlin, who was busy packing his first aid kit away.

“I’m Merlin. Nice meeting you, Percival.”

“Merlin...so you’re the wizard of the group.” Percival grinned.

“Warlock,” Merlin replied automatically. Wizard just sounded too much of Harry Potter. “And yes, I’m the court sorcerer.” He smiled.

“What’s your real name?” Everyone laughed at that.

“Merlin.” He refilled Percival’s mug and grinned. “Arthur and me are the only ones who can use their real names here at Camelot.”

“Oh....Oh! Okay. So...I’m Percival now? If you want to have me, that is.” Even though the question was directed at everyone, Percival looked at Merlin. 

Morgana kicked Merlin’s shin under the table and wore a smug smile while Arthur announced that the roundtable might have found a new knight. 

While the others prepared dinner over the fire, Merlin talked to Percy. He had to make sure the patient was alright, didn’t he? Once in a while, he put new ice into his scarf and dabbed it on Percy’s fingers. 

He found out that Percy was a paediatrician and had a good laugh at that. “Explains why you didn’t want a doctor. Doctors make the worst patients.”

“So I’ve heard.” Percy laughed. “But you’re doing a good job here. I can almost move my fingers again.”

“That’s the ice, not me.” Merlin smiled.

Percy had just moved to the area from Liverpool a few months ago after his divorce was final. 

Merlin stiffened a bit at that. Just as he dared to hope to have found someone to at least flirt with for an evening, the bloke turns out to be straight. Just his luck, wasn’t it?

“You were married?”

“Yeah. Kind of stupid when you’re gay, isn’t it?” Percy threw Merlin a look and then laughed. “You should see your face.”

Merlin cleared his throat and tried to get up. 

Percy reached for his arm to hold him back. “Hey. I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to make fun of you. You know what I thought this morning when we first met?”

Sitting back down again, Merlin shook his head. 

“Damn, he’s cute. That’s what I thought.”

“Blokes aren’t ‘cute’.” Merlin tried to glare, but he felt a blush burn on his cheeks. 

“Gay ones are.” Percy moved a bit closer. “And you definitely are.”

“What makes you sure I’m gay?” He didn’t run about with a neon sign over his head, did he? He wasn’t ashamed of it and didn’t try to hide it, but he didn’t advertise it either. Straight people didn’t shove that fact into others faces either, why should he, just because he liked men?

“The look on your face when I said I was married. I’d really like to get to know you better, if you’re interested.”

Now Merlin blushed completely. His ears felt like they were on fire and he knew his cheeks were bright red. “Yeah...yeah, I think I’d like that.” He couldn’t believe his luck. This guy was gorgeous. Tall, just as Merlin liked it, all muscles, kind eyes, a nice smile, huge hands...oh, the mere thought of what those hands might be able to do sent shivers down Merlin’s spine. 

By the time dinner was ready, Percy held Merlin’s hand when Merlin wasn’t busy with the ice and checking on the bandage. 

Morgana graced them with a smug grin and Gwen whispered something about “having fun in someone else’s bed once in a while” into his ear as she passed them to sit with Arthur. 

After dinner, they all sat and talked until the campfire burned down and it got chilly. Most of the others retreated to their tents. And then it was just Merlin and Percival. 

Merlin’s heart was beating faster when Percy leaned over and whispered “Wanna come to my tent?”

He swallowed hard and felt himself blush. How stupid was that? He was a grown man and the mere thought of spending the night in some still-stranger’s tent made him blush! Merlin tried to come up with a clever remark, but Percy’s warm breath against his neck was too distracting.

“To make sure that your patient is alright?” 

Merlin shivered when he felt Percy’s lips on his skin. He let out a surprised yelp and nodded. He’d been half hard since Percy moved closer over dinner and that touch went straight to his groin. “Let’s go,” he whispered. 

Percy pulled him along, away from their camp, away from all those ears who could hear stuff that wasn’t meant for them and as soon as they were far enough, he wrapped his arms around Merlin and pushed him against a tree.

“Kiss me already,” Merlin murmured a split second before their lips touched, his hands trying to fist the chainmail...which turned out to be a bad idea. But that was forgotten as soon as Percy kissed him, careful and almost shy at first, but then more demanding, letting his tongue explore Merlin’s mouth and all Merlin could do was to cling to the large bloke as his knees went weak. 

He tried to rub his clothed erection against Percy, but once again, the chainmail was in the way and he groaned into the kiss.

Percy pulled back. “Tell me what you want.”

“You...without the chainmail,” Merlin got out between pants. “Naked,” he whispered.

Percy’s tent turned out to be not as far from their camp as Merlin would have liked, but that didn’t matter now. All he wanted was to get naked with this gorgeous mountain of a guy, to feel him inside, to be used so hard that he would barely be able to walk in the morning.  
They fumbled with clothes and giggled a lot when Percy’s chainmail made too many clanking noises when he pulled it over his head with Merlin’s help. 

Merlin let himself drop onto the soft furs that made Percy’s bed and wiggled around on them. Damn, they tickled in the best of ways. 

Percy just stood over him and watched.

“What?” Merlin stopped and stared up at him. Fuck! He looked even better without clothes! All defined muscle and a cock that matched Percy’s frame. Merlin felt his mouth go dry. 

Percy swallowed hard. “You’re beautiful. Do that again.” 

Even though the stare gave Merlin a feeling like being an insect under the microscope, the hungry look on Percy’s face turned him on beyond words. He groaned and moved again, feeling the hairs of the fur stroke his naked skin. 

Percy dropped down next to him, running one of his large hands over Merlin’s chest. “So hot,” he whispered. 

Merlin turned to demand another one of those mind-blowing kisses and could have lost himself just stroking Percy’s arms, feeling the strong muscles under soft skin, making them twitch and move. 

Instinctively, Percy seemed to know how to push all of Merlin’s buttons. That hot mouth kissing his breath away, sometimes rough and demanding, sometimes with a gentleness one wouldn’t expect from such a giant, the large hand roaming his body, finding the sensitive spots, caressing, exploring, finding their way but never touching where Merlin wanted the touch most. When Merlin tried to move them together to finally make their cocks touch, Percy’s hand on his hips held him back. 

“Damn, Perce...fuck me. Fuck me hard.” Merlin touched foreheads with Percy, but held his eyes closed, just breathing hard with need. 

Percy stole another kiss. “Do you have...?”

Merlin’s eyes opened. “No...you?”

They both chuckled. There they were, totally turned on, but none of them had thought of bringing protection. 

“Kind of frustrating.” Yes, it was, but Merlin smiled anyway. It meant that Percy hadn’t planned on just finding someone to shag. He didn’t have time to think more about it, because Percy wrapped his large hand around both their cocks.

“This’ll have to do then.” He kissed Merlin again and started to move his hand up and down.

Merlin almost whined into the kiss. Their pricks touching, being pressed together, Percy’s hot skin against his, the large hand around him...his hips started to move on their own, shoving into the hand, rubbing his dick against Percy’s. 

Percy groaned. “Noisy little fucker.” He bit at Merlin’s lip. “I like that.” 

He couldn’t do much more than hold onto that massive arm as he rocked against Percy and melted into the kisses. “I’m...I’m close...”

“Let go,” Percy whispered and bit down on Merlin’s neck. 

Merlin yelled out, the combined sensation too much. He came hard and only realised a moment later that Percy’s cock was pulsing against his as he shot, too. 

Panting hard, they lay in silence and Percy only let go as it just started to get uncomfortable being grabbed like that. 

The big man reached around for his t-shirt and cleaned them both before he wrapped his arms around Merlin and pulled another blanket made of fur over them. 

 

Merlin woke up to the persistent singing of that one bird in the tree up above the tent. Why couldn’t it just shut up? For another hour or so? Still half asleep he snuggled back into a broad chest, feeling a huge hand on his belly, pulling him back. A lazy smile spread across his face as the memory of the previous night surfaced in his mind. Usually he didn’t really like being held like that by someone he just met, like he couldn’t escape and had to stay because the other wanted it. But this morning, he just felt perfectly safe. 

There was movement behind him and he smiled at the kiss on his shoulder. 

“Morning.” Percy whispered.

“Morning.” Merlin moved a bit to show Percy that he wanted his lips on that sensitive spot on his neck and felt the other man’s hard-on against his butt. 

Percy drew a sharp breath. “If you keep up rubbing yourself against me, I’ll...have to do something about it.” There clearly was a wide smile in that voice. 

“And what would be so bad about it?” Merlin wiggled.

“Oh, you’re an evil one!” Percy sucked on his neck and pushed his now very interested dick between Merlin’s legs as his fingers found Merlin’s hardness. 

Merlin pressed his legs together and groaned as the long hard dick rubbed against his balls, cursing himself that he hadn’t been prepared. He wanted that beautiful large cock inside him but that wasn’t going to happen now. So he moved into Percy’s fingers while trying to provide enough pressure with his thighs for Percy to enjoy. 

Percy sucked up a few marks on Merlin’s neck and shoulder. “And a very hot one, too. Fuck, I want all of you next time.” He pumped between Merlin’s legs in the same rhythm his hand flew up and down Merlin’s length and it didn’t take them long to come again. 

“I’d like that,” Merlin murmured when he finally caught his breath. He felt a smile against his skin. “But I’ll have to get back to my backpack now.”

“Is that your way of telling me you won’t stay?”

Merlin chuckled. “Come along. They’ll expect us over at Camelot.” He turned to look at Percy. “And I need my allergy meds and they are in my backpack, which I’d left over there.” 

They scrambled up, cleaned themselves a bit with water from a bottle, put their clothes back on and walked back to the Camelot camp. Usually Merlin hated not being able to take a shower in the morning, but today he didn’t mind. So what if he wasn’t squeaky clean and smelled of sweat and nightly activities? They pretended to be in the middle ages, they could as well make the smell authentic! 

When they reached the camp, Leon was about to make a fire. 

“Morning.” Merlin mumbled. Oh, this was more awkward than he’d thought. Why did it have to be Leon they ran into first? 

Leon’s reply wasn’t the warm and cheery ‘Morning’ Merlin knew, but he had to take his meds soon and wanted to get new bandages for Percy, too, so he made his way to where he’d last seen his backpack. 

Just then, Morgana came out of her tent, all beautiful dress, careful make-up, nicely done hair, looking like a fresh spring morning. “Oh, you’re back.” She grinned.

“Told you I’d be back in the morning.” Merlin felt a blush spread on his face. 

She straightened up, the knowing grin getting wider. “Did you have fun? Is he as good as I hope?”

“What makes you think that anything happened? Maybe we just talked and fell asleep?” The contents of his backpack were suddenly very interesting. Merlin just couldn’t look at Morgana. 

“Merlin. You look like a freshly fucked squirrel, clothes rumpled, bright hickeys on your neck and throat, your hair all over the place and that goofy wide smile on your face that always tells us that you got laid.” 

He blushed a bit more as he pressed the first aid kit against his chest and shouldered his backpack with the other. “And how on earth would you know what a freshly fucked squirrel looks like? Oh no, wait, I don’t even want to know!” He turned and went back to Percy, only to catch Leon glaring at Percy, nodding once and then turning away.

“What was that about?” He pushed Percy into a seat. “Let me check on your hand.”

“Nothing,” Percy shook his head and after a pause, he added. “You have good friends.” 

Merlin gave him an inquiring look, but when there was nothing more, he concentrated on his task. Percy’s hand was still swollen, but it wasn’t as bad as the night before. The fingers were a bit stiff and Percy hissed when Merlin tried to move them. “Promise me to see a doctor about this tomorrow?”

Percy nodded and Merlin leaned over to put a soft kiss on his lips before he put some salve on the scabs and bandaging it again. He wrapped his red scarf around it again to “..make it look more medieval-ish.” 

Merlin felt giddy. This was the best weekend in quite a while. Percival was accepted into the group easily, they all treated him as if he was with them forever, talking to him, involving them in the tasks and it seemed as if Percy wanted to see him again in real life, too, as he kept making plans of what they could do together and of what Merlin needed to show him. Having moved to the city only six months ago, he’d been busy establishing his practice. 

He had his arm around Merlin’s shoulder most of the time and when he thought the others weren’t paying too close attention, Merlin snuggled against him. 

Later that day, they wandered along the market, had fun with the jugglers, tried their skills at crossbow shooting and let Maria, who was dressed up as a poor old woman, read their palms. Not that Merlin believed in stuff like that, but he still beamed when she saw that they would have a long and happy life together. 

“Just what I hoped for,” Percy gave Maria a few coins. “Thank you so much.” He leaned down and kissed Merlin softly. “Let’s go watch the tournament.”

They sat in the grass, watching the knights on their horses, the archery tournament and the sword fighting. 

Merlin shivered when Percy caressed his neck just underneath the hairline but then burst out laughing when Percy whispered close to his ear, “Too bad I couldn’t win that maiden wreath for you.” 

“Thank you for defending my virtue...but don’t you think it’s a bit late for that?” 

“But you’d look good with one of them.”

Merlin laid back into the grass, still laughing. “Yeah, and the others would have a ball teasing me until I’m 130.”

Percy leaned over him and stole another kiss. “Come on, if I can’t win it for you, I’ll at least buy you one.”

“A post-coital maiden wreath? That’s new.” He let Percy pull him up and had quite some fun picking out the right wreath with him. While Merlin leaned towards the one with the little dark red roses since it matched his scarf, Percy insisted on one with blue blossoms that brought out the colour of his eyes. 

Hand in hand they wandered back to the camp and that made Merlin sad since it meant their time together in this little alternate universe was coming to an end. Soon they’d have to break camp and go back into the real world, where he wasn’t Merlin, the court sorcerer but the paramedic and Percival was Percy, the doctor and everything would change and this weekend might only be a nice memory. And he didn’t want that.

“What is it?” Percy gave him a sideways look. 

“Nothing.” Merlin tried to plaster his widest smile on his face. 

Percy pulled him behind a tree and gave him another one of those toe-curling kisses. “What’s your schedule for tomorrow?”

Merlin felt his heart beating faster, the careful smile on his face genuine. “My shift starts at 2.”

“Twelve hours, I suppose?” Percy held him in place and Merlin felt the bark of the tree through his shirt.

“Yeah,” he nodded, “maybe even longer. Depends on how often we are called.” 

“For the next week?”

Merlin nodded again. “Probably ten days, don’t know yet.”

“Damn, it’s difficult asking you out on a date.” Percy frowned but then grinned. “But I can call you to check when you’re available?”

“Can’t wait for your call.” Merlin wrapped his arms around Percy’s neck and couldn’t care less who saw them necking. 

When they came back to the others, they all had a good laugh at Merlin’s maiden wreath, but he wore it proudly until they had packed up. 

Arthur made Percy promise to come to their meetings and camp with them at the next fair, Freya informed him that he had to teach her the tricks of how he made his chainmail and Gwaine insisted on at least buying Percy a beer to apologise for the accident. 

“Should we wait by the car?” Gwen whispered as she passed him.

“I’ll be right with you.” Merlin didn’t want to say goodbye to Percy, but with a week like his ahead, he needed some rest. He turned to Percy, who had linked fingers with him. “So...this is it, I reckon?”

Percy smiled. “For this weekend only, I hope?”

They shared another long kiss. “You haven’t called yet.” Merlin grinned as he reluctantly let go of the other man. 

“Clear your schedule, will you?”

A few kisses later, they finally said bye and Merlin hummed on the way to the car. He threw his backpack on the back seat and climbed in, smiling widely. When his mobile beeped, Gwen laughed. “Morgana will have a ball when I tell her about that.”


End file.
